Introduction
NOTE: The data and findings below are drafts subject to change and
some pieces are still in the QA process.
RACE COUNTS provides a 3D view of racial equity:
OUTCOME: How
well people are doing. The higher the circle, the better the outcome.
DISPARITY: How racial groups compare to one another. The further
right the circle, the greater the differences by race.
IMPACT: The
total population. The bigger the circle, the larger the population.
Purple counties: Gains at Risk;
Orange counties: Prosperity for
the Few;
Yellow counties:
Struggling to Prosper;
Red counties:
Stuck and Unequal.
Race/Ethnicity Notes
1) “Other” race includes those who identify with a race outside
of the specifically named categories, such as Asian, White, etc.
2)
Race labels for bar charts: The “nh_” prefix signifies that a group is
non-Latinx (excludes Latinx).
3) The “twoormor” group represents
those who identify as Two or More Races.
Indicators
Healthy Built Environment Index - UPDATED
- The four counties in the Red Quadrant (Higher Disparity, Lower
Outcome) with the worst outcome measures are all in the San Joaquin
Valley.
- Los Angeles County has the worst outcome out of all 46 counties
ranked on the healthy built environment index.
- The Central Coast seems to be the region with the healthiest and
least racially disparate built environments in the state. Of the six
counties in the region, there are five with better than average outcome
and five with below average racial disparities.
Drinking Water Contaminants -
UPDATED
Scatterplot
- Counties with larger populations tend to have less than average
racial disparity, while all of the counties with the most disparity have
smaller populations.
- Four of the Five counties in the Red Quadrant are from the San
Joaquin Valley, meaning that region experiences above average levels of
both drinking water contaminants and racial disparities in who in
exposed to them.
- Los Angeles County ranks the 4th worst of all 56 California counties
measured in overall levels of drinking water contaminants.
State Barchart
- Statewide, Latinx, Southwest Asian or North African, and American
Indian or Alaska Native Californians are the three racial groups with
more exposure to drinking water contaminants than the overall statewide
rate.
Food Access
Scatterplot
- All six counties in the Central Coast region and eight of the nine
counties in the Bay Area have better than average overall access to
fresh fruits and vegetables. Racial disparities in this access vary
across the two regions though, with roughly half the counties in each
region in the Purple Quadrant (low disparity) and half in the Orange
Quadrant (high disparity).
- All eight counties in the San Joaquin Valley have below average
outcome in access to fresh foods, and five of the six counties in the
Red Quadrant (low outcome, high disparity) are from the region.
- San Diego and Orange County have uniquely high rates of access to
fresh food among Southern California counties, and are the only two
counties from the region in the Purple Quadrant (high outcome, low
disparity).
State Barchart
- White and multi-racial Californians are the only racial groups with
access to fresh fruits and vegetables at a rate higher than the overall
statewide rate.
- Black and Latinx Californians have the worst access to fresh fruits
and vegetables of any racial group in the state, with their respective
access rates eight and seven percentage points lower than that of White
people.
Proximity to Hazards - UPDATED
Scatterplot
- There is a general negative correlation in California between county
population size and the racial disparities in proximity to hazardous
sites in that county. Meaning that, in general, larger population
counties have less racial disparity on this indicator.
- Nevada and Amador Counties rank as the having the worst and second
worst proximity to hazards scores (outcomes) statewide. Their scores are
close to or more than double that of the third worst outcome
county.
- In the counties with the four worst racial disparity scores,
American Indian and Alaska Native residents live in the greatest
proximity to hazardous sites. In two of these counties (Mono and
Madera), AIAN folks are 2x more exposure to hazardous sites than the
average county resident.
State Barchart
- Latinx and Southwest Asian or North African Californians face nearly
1.5 times more exposure to hazardous clean up sites than Whites, the
group with the best rate. Black and Asian Californians also face
exposure that is above the statewide rate.
Toxic Releases from Facilities -
UPDATED
Scatterplot
- Los Angeles and Orange Counties have by far the lowest outcome (most
exposure to toxic releases) among all California counties.
- The non-urban, northern counties of Mariposa and Siskiyou exhibit by
far the highest racial disparities in those exposed to toxic releases
from facilities. In Siskiyou County, Latinx residents are exposed to
toxic releases at nearly 3x the overall county rate.
- Six of the eight counties with higher racial disparities are
counties with populations around or below 50,000 residents.
State Barchart
- Black residents statewide face more than 2.5 times, and Latinx
residents two times, as much exposure to toxic releases as White
residents do.
Asthma - UPDATED
Scatterplot
- San Francisco has the second highest disparity rate in the state for
asthma diagnoses behind only Mendocino County. American Indian or Alaska
Native residents of the county are almost 3x as likely to be diagnosed
with asthma than the average county resident.
- The Central Coast counties particularly stand out in this measure.
Five of the six counties in the region are in the Purple Quadrant (high
outcome, low disparity), with Monterey, Ventura, and Santa Barbara
recording three of the four best asthma rates in the state.
- There is no data on asthma rates for 17 of the 25 counties in the
Northern/Sierra region.
State Barchart
- All but one of the eight counties in the San Joaquin Valley have
higher rates of asthma than average. Counties from the region represent
more than half of the counties in the Red Quadrant (low outcome, high
disparity).
- Southwest Asian or North African, Asian, and Latinx Californians
have the lowest rates of asthma diagnoses in the state.
- More than one in five Black, American Indian or Alaska Native,
Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and Multiracial non-Latinx
Californians have been diagnosed with asthma.
Lack of Green Space - UPDATED
Scatterplot
- The 10 counties with the lowest disparity also have worse outcomes
(less greenspace).
- There is a strong negative correlation between greenspace and
population size in counties. Only two of the top ten performing counties
have more than 100,000 residents, while all counties with more than
300,000 residents had below average outcome.
- Los Angeles County ranks 55 out of 56 counties in greenspace.
- In Mendocino County, which ranks first for the most racial
disparities in access to greenspace, white people have nearly 2x greater
access to greenspaces than Latinx residents of the county.
State Barchart
- Black people have the least access to greenspaces of any racial
group in California, with 54.5% of land in disproportionately Black
neighborhoods covered by impenetrable surfaces. This rate is 14
percentage points higher than the rate for white people.
- Asian, Latinx, and Southwest Asian or North African Californians are
also less likely to have access to greenspace than the average
Californian.